SLINKY| A SHORT FILM ANALYSIS

This short film is about a man called Eddie who is spotted by his friend called Jeremy. Jeremy is portrayed as immature, silly and stupid. His character seems as if he hasn't matured since he left school. The contrast in characters is what makes this short film entertaining. This is an analysis of the editing techniques that the film includes and my overall opinion.


Camerawork  

• - Close up of Jeremy to convey his immaturity and childish behaviour.
• - Establishing shot of the park, which allows the audience to see the setting of the venue, this helps t heighten the irony of Jeremy's character, as the park has connotations of children, in which these two characters are seen as.
• - Panning shot from the sky to Eddie sitting on the bench with his lunch and a newspaper to imply his sophisticated job.
• - Low angle of Eddie to show his inner immaturity.
• - Finally over the shoulder shot of Jeremy s he walks past Eddie until he spots Eddie on the bench, to allow the audience to see Eddie before Jeremy does and therefore we know that eventually Jeremy will see him and make conversation with him.

Sound

 

• -Ambient sound of the birds singing helps create a typical day at the park.
• -Dialogue between the character- Jeremy at the beginning of the film appears to be the immature and silly character with a high pitch voice, suggesting his childish behaviour. However Eddie appears at the beginning of the film to the mature character using proper English and keeps a very controlled and deep voice, until the end of the film where he plays with the slinky.
• -Sound bridge- Eddies laughter at the end of the clip, when he is playing with the slinky.
• -Eddies voice changed to become more high pitch at the end of the film where he is paying with the slinky, conveying his inner immaturity and child like behaviour.

 

Editing

 

• -Quick cuts from character to character.
• -Natural lighting which is established when they are in the park.
• -A shot reverse shot between Eddie and Jeremy when that have a conversation.

 

Mise En Scene

 

• -The clothes distinguish the difference between both characters, Eddie wears a suit which looks rather professional where as Jeremy wears quite casual clothes which shows the difference between class and status and character.
• -The food on the bench in the lunch box helps prepare the 'twist' at the end of the film, where Eddie acts childish, and therefore the lunch box and pack lunch is a typical connotation of children.
• -Space hopper that Jeremy uses vs the newspaper that Eddie reader, compares the maturity level of both characters.
• - Finally the most important- the slinky which is used as a twist in the short film making it more interesting for the audience to watch. and then the audience understand that really neither character have actually grown up and both contains an inner childish behaviour.

Overall this short film did not appear to be very humorous to watch for me. I felt that the characters were portrayed successfully and that the editing techniques were kept minimalists to help reflect the characters. However the distinguished contrast between the two characters was, what I thought the main point therefore when the twist came in at the end when Eddie turned immature I didn't quite understand.

Overall I probably would not use this short film as a influence upon my short film, as the genre would not be the same.